Let's Paint!

[Thorondor]

Actual, genuine acknowledgement of your work for a change, Zombie. Refreshingly satisfying this day and age.

 

I'll drink to that!

[Zombie]

So a few months ago a fellow colleague at work wanted some painting done at his house. He asked me because he knows I do a good job and he just doesn't like painting much. I had to go over there to see what was involved and if I could tackle it myself. It seemed doable so I said yes - cost will be the usual time and materials. The first issue was that the color on siding was a flat black latex, which means two coats minimum for coverage. Another issue was the wood brick molding around the garage door was falling apart and coming off the wall. We opted to replace the sides and corners with PVC brick molding instead as it'll hold up better. Installed that, painted it a white to match the garage door and two coats on the walls (plus some extra lighter coats to fill in the pores).

 

 

Painted the area to the left of the front door above the bay window with 2 coats and also painted the wood molding above the bricks a reddish color to match better.

 

 

Continuing counter clockwise around the corner is the interface between the siding and the corner - the caulk was failing and needed to be redone, I painted the corner board with white primer and a couple coats of the reddish paint, then nailed on a PVC cover to make it look finished. Painted the downspout hangers with some white paint as they were rusty. The caulk around most of the windows of the house was cracked, loose and moldy so I had to dig out all that old caulk and apply new beads again (took me a few days for this as this was very time intensive). Just got done with that yesterday.

 

 

On the side of the garage the window was falling apart and the framing was rotten. We rebuilt the window a bit (it doesn't open now) and his brother helped him install it and the new PVC framing. I caulked it and painted it with two coats of white.

 

 

The service door of the garage leading to the back of the property was rusty and dirty so I got some oil based gloss white paint and put about three coats on the door (after sanding, wiping and priming of course). The screen door was in terrible shape, it should really be replaced but we're doing this on the cheap so I told him we could just repair and paint it with some of that gloss white. The screen door is a chip board core (wood chips glued together) and aluminum cladding but the aluminum was eaten through (probably from salt in the winter?) so I had to dig out the bad with a putty knife then used a rotary file on a Dremel tool to file away the bad aluminum.

 

 

The holes were pretty rough as it's hard to keep that little file from digging into the soft aluminum. I brought the drill from work along with a larger rotary file bit to smooth out the rough spots and that did a fantastic job. Now you might be thinking: okay, great, you've just made some giant holes in the door now what? Well, I filled them in with Bondo (automotive two-part epoxy). Forgot to bring along my broad knife though so filling the holes was troublesome with just putty knives. When it's dry, I'm going to need to do some sanding to get it somewhat flat and probably will have to apply some more Bondo to the lower spots. I'll try to get pics of this ongoing mess tomorrow.

 

So now you know what I've been up to after work for the last couple months on and off.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Well, that garage is sure looking swish after the Zombie treatment!

 

Not only that, much of what you speak of evidences the kind of detailing work that is involved in much of it (re-caulking, PVC brick molding installation, yet another door restoration) beyond plain painting.

 

Just generally accomplishing a lot with little, as usual. Part of me wonders what drool-worthy results might you achieve when provided with a fat budget for a change.

[Zombie]

Just generally accomplishing a lot with little, as usual. Part of me wonders what drool-worthy results might you achieve when provided with a fat budget for a change.

 

Yeah, I'm kinda limited in scope as the homeowner doesn't want to throw too much money at the door right now. My initial recommendation was to replace, but he didn't want to do that for another couple years so repair it is. I don't take issue with that, it's his choice in the end. I'll do what I can to protect it from the elements and it should last a few years at least, in the mean time he can save up for a decent screen door.

 

So I went over there to do some cursory sanding on the inside of the door and got it pretty good, not perfect, but good. Homeowner decided to purchase a detail sander as all he had was a belt sander at home, so I used that to finish the sanding on the inside. There were still some dark spots in the bondo so that meant there were low areas which needed to be filled yet. After sanding and then the 2nd coat of Bondo:

 

 

With the spots filled, another light sanding is all it's going to take along with a coat of clear metal primer. The outside of the door was pretty rough so I couldn't apply the Bondo evenly for the first coat. Sanding smoothed things out considerably so the second coat went on much easier.

 

 

Here again, another light sanding, some primer and a day to dry and I can paint it. The oil paint should protect it a lot more than the paint that was on there previously and it'll at least match the color and glossiness of the inner service door. Because of the glossiness, it'll show the spots where I filled in with Bondo, but shouldn't be too noticeable from a distance.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

He's laying it on thick? As he should - no reason not to throw money at the screen for Zombie!

 

Best to err on the side of excess it seems, where Bondo is concerned. And now you've even got a new tool for things to go extra smoothly.

 

Be sure to keep an eye on any vestigial rippling. Otherwise I'm confident you'll wrap it all up to glowing praise.

[Space Voyager]

Yeah, I'm kinda limited in scope as the homeowner doesn't want to throw too much money at the door right now. My initial recommendation was to replace, but he didn't want to do that for another couple years so repair it is.

 

But, you're proving your recommendation WRONG! Simply by doing a repair so good that replacement would be unnecessary...

 

That said, the door seems on a cheap side. Buying new one is probably a much cheaper solution if your time is taken into account.

[Zombie]

But, you're proving your recommendation WRONG! Simply by doing a repair so good that replacement would be unnecessary...

 

The repair/paint job is not going to last forever. It's a quick fix which will give him some leeway on replacement. How long he gets out of it depends on a number of factors. For example, if you nick the door with a snow shovel that might create a scratch which may hasten deterioration. Or using a ton of salt in the winter, although I'm not convinced this is what caused the door to go bad in the first place. I think it's because there's an in-ground swimming pool right outside the door and it seems more likely the pool chemicals slowly ate away at the aluminum. Another big factor is upkeep. If you touch up the door every couple years it'll keep it protected.

 

That said, the door seems on a cheap side. Buying new one is probably a much cheaper solution if your time is taken into account.

 

It's not really a cheap door. Granted, it's like 25 or 30 years old so the newer doors probably have better components and manufacturing techniques but this one was top-of-the-line in it's day. Back in the 90's this was a $300+ screen door (that's the price he quoted me, uninstalled). These days, a top-of-the-line replacement is easily north of $500-$600 uninstalled. With my time and labor, it's probably only a $100-125 repair (which he's fine with) as it gives him time to get the funds together for a decent new screen door). Yes, he could go to a home improvement store like Home Depot but even an el-cheapo screen door is in the neighborhood of $200+ and who know how long it would last.

 

If it was my house and my decision I probably would have fixed the door before replacement too as I can work for free so there would be no labor charges, only material (bondo, primer and paint). I would keep up with the maintenance on it too. And if the day came to replace the door outright, I could save a little money by installing it myself (did a couple screen door installations before and it's not too bad).

 

So today I did a bit more sanding on the bondo areas to get everything somewhat flat. I think it ended up pretty good - better than I expected. Inside after sanding with 60 grit than 150 grit sandpaper (sorry no outside pic of this step)

 

 

And then a little metal primer inside and out.

 

 

Still wet in spots obviously and I put on a very heavy coat so there are runs but at least it's white now. I'm going to be lightly sanding the door yet to receive paint so the runs will be gone and I might spray on a haze coat of primer on some of the areas. All in all, it's looking good.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

It can only get better, if Zombie handles the matter!

 

Which will clearly be the case with the restoration of this screen door.

 

Sure, it's not looking picture perfect just yet but for all intents and purposes it shall very much be like new with the finishing touches you've mentioned.

[Zombie]

Well, I got the screen door all painted this evening. It had to be cleaned up a bit first, so I used some acetone to wipe down the dirty areas which seemed to get rid of most of the gunk and dirt. Purchased another quart of the gloss white paint and used about 1/4 of the can so there is plenty left for potential touch-ups in the future. The first can has about 1/4 left (which includes some paint thinner washings from the roller and brush), enough for any last minute projects and whatever isn't used I'll bring back to the shop as I'm always in need of gloss white oil paint.

 

Not sure how fast it's going to dry though as the mornings are cool and the dew is starting to settle out - fall is on it's way whether we like it or not. On top of the cool temperatures and humidity, I had to apply about 3 light coats to get the white to cover properly so it'll take a while for a skin to form and the paint to fully cure. Tomorrow we are going to put a fan on it to hopefully speed things along. I need the paint to be fully dry before I reinstall the door handles, closer and spring. Besides that, I'm painting a metal conduit next to the door white too and I need to install some weather stripping around the service door and a new sweep for the bottom of the screen door. Then it's just some minor touch ups, small projects and the cleanup and I'll be done. ETA on that is probably next week and I'll be done.

 

Sorry, no pics yet as the door was too wet to touch, I'll try to take some tomorrow.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

So I totally was going to take a picture of the newly painted white screen door today, but it unfortunately needed another coat of paint yet (especially the lower part of the door where I used Bondo). Out came the roller for a final coat, and I can tell that's just what the doctor ordered. Plus it'll give the area with the most wear another level of protection. I'll do a big reveal tomorrow then.

 

Remember this?

 

We also had a window replaced this fall, so I figured I should get going on that too. This is what it looks like currently.

 

 

It needed a lot of caulking so I got most of that completed and I also applied a coat of brown paint on the upper part of the brick molding. Unfortunately by this point the work day was coming to an end, it started to rain, and it was getting dark (no more daylight saving time as that ended on Sunday) so no pic was taken. Will do that tomorrow, weather permitting.

 

I never did get around to taking a picture of that it seems. Well, there's also a door next to that window on the roof and it's in terrible shape. The original plan was to replace the window and the door at the same time, but only the window was fixed. There is a screen door on the outside which takes the brunt of the weather and the whole frame and molding for the screen door was rotted out. I started on one of my infamous "destructor" sessions and almost forgot to take a pic.

 

 

So yeah, I kinda got carried away and just tore the whole thing out. The molding was heavily caulked so I decided to scrape all of the old stuff out to start over with a fresh surface. And there was some loose paint around the mortar joints so I scraped that off too.

 

For the window, the brick molding is soft and rotten on the right side. Now, I could just replace that piece and be done with it. But brick molding comes in 10 foot sections, the perimeter of the window is 9 feet 1 inch, so it would be stupid not to replace the whole thing. We are going to use new PVC brick molding for this application as it gets a lot of weather up there.

 

As for the door, the molding is actually nothing more than a 3/4 inch thick board. I found a section of that in the small garage that I can cut up and use, gotta love it when you have something on hand and don't have to buy anything for a project. Best part is that this section is just long enough to cover the sides and the top. The lower molding is a piece of wood 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches so I can cut down a normal piece of 2x4 lumber and it'll be perfect (I'm going to repurpose an old piece from the greenhouse for this).

 

After scraping, pulling nails, removing screws, chipping away old putty I was left with, well, what was left.

 

 

To fix the threshold I'm going to use some bondo to fill in the rotten area. To fix the frame on the left side I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that. I might dig out all the wood that's bad and try to marry another piece to it by screwing it into the mortar joints and caulking everything up. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

This time around, dear viewers, as Zombie does his dance we get screen door suspense.

 

As for your rewind to the window, and now door, affair I can see how urgently the latter was in need of your destructor mode all over.

 

And how contrasing indeed its degraded state further becomes when you got that pic framed with a backdrop of vivid festive ribbons and decorations inside.

 

Time once again for that special kind of reconstructive surgery of yours. Given the exposed nature of the location though you should figure out how to best protect all that wood (and screws) you're about to apply over the longer run.

[Zombie]

I mostly wrapped up my field trip painting project today. Started this on July 12 so just about two months of elapsed time, but 37 actual "days" after work for a couple hours each time on average. First of all, a pic of the service door from the inside.

 

 

I painted the conduit (metal pipe) running along the right side of the frame with the same white oil paint I used on the door. I primed the pipe with a white latex paint first so I could get by with one coat. Also cleaned up and reinstalled the rubber and aluminum door sweep today, looks professional now! Next up is a pic of the exterior side of the service door and inside of the screen door.

 

 

Nice and shiny! The screen door looks practically brand new (probably better actually) and you can't even tell there were some giant holes in it filled with bondo. I installed new gray weatherstripping around the service door frame too. As for the outside of the screen door:

 

 

From a couple feet away it doesn't look too bad, and unless you knew where I patched you probably would have a hard time pointing it out. It is kinda obvious if you get right up to it though - there's no way to get around that.

 

 

Yeah, it's a little lumpy which is more apparent due to the gloss paint, but it's not horrible. I think it should hold up for a few years... at the first sign of trouble I can always touch it up with the leftover paint. Stupid me forgot to remove the tape on the ground to the right of the door. And the screen door needs a sweep on the outside to prevent water from making it's way under the door. Homeowner claims he can do that.

 

So there you go, a "quick" synopsis.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Spic-and-span, that special way only Zombie can!

 

All told the time investment is still quite something but the results of your work do speak for themselves.

 

It was a rather comprehensive makeover from top edge to bottom sweepers, weather-proofing included - wherever the eye roams, zero room for moans.

 

Sure, training a finer lens on the screen door will pick up on slight spots of uneveness, but we're talking about outright reconstruction that dispenses with - let's not forget it - door replacement.

 

Verdict: slick and right on the money!

[Zombie]

Changing gears again, this time back to the shop. I had some time this afternoon to go up on the roof and do some more work on the door. The first thing I did was take a closer look at the threshold board - it's pretty rotten on the left side and the more I dug the bigger the hole. That's going to be an issue.

 

The framing on the left side of the door was also pretty soft the further out you got. At first I thought I could just marry a new piece on but the more I looked at it the less feasible it became. Took out the tape measure and found out the framing is 3/4 inch x 9 1/2 inches which is technically a dimensional lumber size here in the US (nominal measurement is a 1x10) so that kinda changes the whole outlook. Instead of trying to fix what's bad I can just replace outright for a hell of a lot less time, labor and cost. Plus I can get the lumber green treated so it'll last longer too. So that's probably what is going to happen for the sides.

 

As for the threshold, I'm still unsure. I'm heavily leaning to repairing somehow. The issue I face is that the board is exactly 1 inch thick, so it isn't a standard dimensional size so an exact replacement isn't an option. The threshold sits on top of some 3/4 inch pieces of hardwood though - if I'd switch to 2-by dimensional lumber (the thickness would be 1 1/2 inches), I'd have to remove those hardwood pieces to get it to fit, but it's doable. The other issue is that the threshold board is like 15-16 inches wide so I would need to marry two pieces together to get the width correct. Lots of work in either case, so that's why I think repairing is probably cheaper - I do have some pieces of 1" lumber in the small garage (I'm a lumber hoarder, so shoot me) which I can cut to length and marry on to the current threshold without tearing everything apart. It's not going to be perfect, but at least it'll match.

 

Hauled out that mistinted greenish latex paint I purchased for dirt cheap a few years ago for use as a first coat and painted the areas I scraped around the door. Apologies, the sun was glaring so it was hard to get a good pic - took a few of them at different angles to give you an idea.

 

 

That's where I'm at right now.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Good thing you're paying that close an attention to those measurements, Zombie, or you'd end up wasting good wood on the door frame.

 

I can't fully tell from the pics you took if you're being too ambitious in that attempt to salvage the current threshold or not but it's understandable you want to give it a go as you have lumber of the right thickness that may save you any extra trouble.

 

What I will say, given the state things can get to in that part of the building, is I'd totally be on board for the green treatment bit, looking ahead.

[Zombie]

Bossman picked up the 1x10's today and also 2 - 8 foot sections of PVC brick molding and 2 - 10 foot sections of PVC brick molding.

 

 

The PVC brick molding came in colors other than white, so I had him get a grey-tan color which is beneficial as I'll be painting them a color other than white anyway. Why so many pieces of brick molding though? I need one 10-foot section to cut up for the window, as for the other sections, I'm going to replace the brick molding on back door of the small garage. I'll try to get some pics of that. For some reason the 1x10's had a a couple beads cut into them (I guess for decoration). Here's a closeup:

 

 

I guess I have to put the decoration to the outside so it's visible. Would be a little stupid to hide it, but it's gonna be painted anyway so I'm not sure how much detail will show especially if it's hidden between the door and screen door.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Don't know why I took the following pic, probably to show what the first delivery run on a Saturday morning looks like. Most of the flowers are for churches which we do a lot of them (not all of the churches we deal with get flowers every Saturday but it's normally 5). For this particular load I had three arrangements going to a funeral too, that's why I'm using the big van.

 

 

Anyhow, yesterday I was able to cut down some boards to use as a molding around the screen door. The lumber is leaning up against that grey cart I painted a while back, still looks good as new.

 

 

Very nice, glad that's done. When I get back from vacation I need to go to the paint store to get some primer for the boards. I might pretreat the moldings with some boiled linseed oil + paint thinner mix first as the sides and top were just plain pine. The bottom molding is actually a cut-off of a green treated 2x4 from the greenhouse, but that looks pretty dry inside and besides, it's going to get the most weather so I might as well treat that too.

 

I still need to address that threshold yet. I might borrow my dad's jigsaw to cut away some of the wood so that it's flat. Then I can "marry" a piece of that 1-by lumber on to it. Might be able to do this with the circular saw too. I guess I should go look for this magical piece of 1-by lumber first, because if I don't have it anymore I'll need to use 2-by dimensional lumber anyway.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Don't know why I took the following pic,

 

It was the part of the soul that just couldn't let the beauty of all of the flowers pass - and made you capture the moment! Beautiful, BTW. Do you create the arrangements, too?

[Zombie]

BTW. Do you create the arrangements, too?

 

Well, I can arrange if I need to, but don't anymore. Back in the day, old bossman and some of the ladies showed me how to do various types. The simple ones I could probably do yet, the more complex I'd need a refresher course. I did a lot of specialized stuff back then like garland for weddings (I made hundreds of feet) and decorating archways.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Alrighty, back from vacation. What did I miss?

 

There's no rest for the wicked especially when fall is in the air and I need to get those boards ready for installation around the door when the time comes. Even though I have green treated lumber for the side boards of the frame I still like to treat them myself with some thinned out boiled linseed oil just for a little more protection (this is especially true for non-treated lumber like I'm using for the frame for the screen door). So any shiny spots you might see is because the liquid didn't soak in all the way yet.

 

 

Now, I normally would prime the boards with an oil paint first but I didn't have any on hand unfortunately and I wasn't going to make a special trip out to the paint store to get it either. So I was thinking what I could use and decided to go with the latex stain from old bossman's house last year. Rationale #1 is that it really sticks good and that's the best feature of a good primer, and rationale #2 is that it's UV stabilized so it should hold up in the sun (the frame really only gets sun in the morning though). Plus I only had a little bit left in two cans and I wanted to use one up, hehe. Here again, any light or shiny spots are due to the paint being a little wet.

 

 

The big boards are completely coated and the smaller boards for the screen door frame are only coated on the ends and two sides - I'll do the rest today... it dries quick. For the big boards I still need to cut those to their proper length once I address the threshold rot problem. The smaller boards for the screen door are already cut to length and are installation ready so I could apply a first coat of the final color (in this case the brown colored paint I used for the exterior wood garage doors I painted a few years ago). I probably can't get them all finished today as they need enough time to dry properly before flipping them around so I'm shooting for Saturday.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Zombie returns! So much for painting the town red...

 

Well, I'm satisfied to see work proceeding unimpeded outdoors. From over here the wood seems to be of decent quality, as there aren't too many imperfections to speak of, on the visible sides of the wood and at first glance anyway.

 

I'm liking the paint coverage. You may have had extraneous reasons to use the paint you did as a primer but it sure works.

[Zombie]

Well, I'm satisfied to see work proceeding unimpeded outdoors. From over here the wood seems to be of decent quality, as there aren't too many imperfections to speak of, on the visible sides of the wood and at first glance anyway.

 

There are, um, there were some imperfections. The wood for the screen door frame is old wood and had nail holes etc but otherwise solid. The green treated wood had some gouges in it along with cracks around the knots but I filled them all in with caulk (or at least most of them, the back side really doesn't matter).

 

I'm liking the paint coverage. You may have had extraneous reasons to use the paint you did as a primer but it sure works.

 

Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

 

So today I put on a light coat of brown paint on all the sides of all the boards. There's a little peek-through of the grey paint, but coverage was good. (There is a distinction between a haze coat, dry brush and a light coat with light being the thickest film followed by haze and finally dry brush (hint-o-color, ahem). I also painted the boards in the greenhouse with the final coat of red polyurethane and touched up the tables to boot. Next week I should be able to put them all away so they'll look fresh and new next year.

 

No pics to post unfortunately as I forgot my camera at work. Tomorrow it is!

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Here are a couple pics of the newly painted boards on top of the tables in the greenhouse along with the tables I touched up.

 

 

The tables of course get scratched up a little during planting season by people sliding the plastic flats along the bench instead of picking them up. Can't control that obviously. The boards on top of the tables take far less punishment but they were the old red color instead of the mistinted red-brown so I painted them to match and to give them another level of protection for next year (only did one side as the bottom side takes no wear and you can't see the difference in color in the shadow). Hopefully they dry enough as I want to put them away soon, though I suspect there will not be any problems with that as they are in the greenhouse where it's nice and toasty.

 

Ok and here is a pic of the side boards for the door (bottom side up):

 

 

There's a gouge on the left board but that side isn't going to be seen so there's no reason to fill it in (as much as I'd like to). Oh, and as a side note take a look at my planting job by the wall. I found out that the plant I pulled out of the cracks in the cement and replanted in the bed is actually a Rudbeckia (black eyed susan) and not a white Echinacea (coneflower). That was a good surprise. The allium never bloomed but I've been fertilizing them before they go dormant so they'll have a good start next year. Fingers crossed there.

 

Here's a pic of the framing for the screen door all painted up:

 

 

If you are wondering what the fluorescent traffic cone is for - it's to shift foot traffic around the boards that stick out so that nobody can complain I didn't give plenty of warning of potential wet paint. As I said, I hauled all these boards into the greenhouse to fully dry as it was supposed to rain.

 

In terms of the threshold, I was looking through my collection of scrap lumber and found a couple pieces which may work (the 1 inch thick pieces I have are a little warped and way too long and wide which would require me to cut them up). So I might try to splice one of these smaller boards into the threshold - I need to take some measurements first as I don't know how much bad wood I'm going to be cutting out. Eta for that is Tuesday assuming the weather cooperates.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Despite it just being a new coat of mistinted red-brown, it feels like you went to town with it, Zombie.

 

Those boards and tables in the greenhouse just liven up the place and seem perfectly fit for service at this stage.

 

Special thumbs up for the attention you still manage to give that little row of plants outside with all the work you have to tend to. They say life finds a way, so by springtime we'll find out if that's the case with the spiced-up allium.

 

Screen door framing and side boards - will do by the looks of it. If people can resist passing by without touching the wet paint.

[Zombie]

In terms of the threshold, I was looking through my collection of scrap lumber and found a couple pieces which may work (the 1 inch thick pieces I have are a little warped and way too long and wide which would require me to cut them up). So I might try to splice one of these smaller boards into the threshold - I need to take some measurements first as I don't know how much bad wood I'm going to be cutting out. Eta for that is Tuesday assuming the weather cooperates.

 

The weather cooperated and nope, those small pieces of lumber I found did not work due to the excessive rot and decay. I started out by cutting out the bare minimum of what wood was bad with a jig saw.

 

 

Now, I probably didn't need to cut that whole length of threshold out, but I honestly wasn't sure how bad it was inside so I erred on the side of caution and took a little more off. Because of this and the rot I had to utilize that wider 1" board. Cut a chunk off to the proper length and placed it in the hole to see if it fit.

 

 

Not bad. I'm unsure what type of wood this was as I reclaimed this from a pallet long ago. Normally pallets are made of oak or maple or sometimes a good grade of pine and I think it was the latter (it definitely wasn't oak though). Now I need to cut the width to fit (hence those two little black pen marks).

 

 

Excellent, though I did turn the board 180 degrees which is why the knot is facing out. It just fit better (and tighter) this way. I might play around with it a little more to see if I can come up with the perfect orientation. The last thing I need to account for is the height: the height of the board... 1" is a perfect fit, but the height above the bricks below was inconsistent so I had to find some wood blocking to raise the board to the proper level.

 

 

On the right side, it was just a hair short of 1 1/2" (which is a dimensional lumber size here in the US) so I couldn't use a 2x4 underneath. I ended up finding a piece of pine which was perfect in the front but not in the back (due to the bricks sloping up) so I rasped some wood off to create the perfect fit. On the left side I used an old piece of strapping from the greenhouse and a custom shim. My plan is to drive screws down the length of the left side to secure that side and then a few on the right on either side of the cuts into the blocking below and then toenail the new wood into the old. Should be plenty strong.

 

In order to protect the new blocking and threshold piece, I'm going to dump them into the paint pail with the boiled linseed oil + paint thinner mix and let them soak in it for a few hours. That should give them a decent level of protection from rot, and a coat of that grey latex stain from old bossman's house will put the icing on the cake. The existing threshold will get the same linseed oil+latex stain treatment. Any low spots or soft wood will be filled with either bondo or water putty. I might put a piece of flashing over the threshold too, not sure if I can find a big enough piece of aluminum otherwise it'll be galvanized sheet metal.

 

I dry fitted the molding under the screen door to the threshold just to give you guys an idea of what it's going to look like.

 

 

So it's coming together now. Once the threshold is finished then I can replace the sides and attach the new molding and we'll be good to go.

 

- Zombie